Mall traffic not a bargain

Shoppers at Lehigh Valley Mall stymied by parking lot gridlock.

December 23, 2007|By Arlene Martínez Of The Morning Call

With a relaxed look on his face and radiating a happy energy, Allentown resident Damien Brown strolled the Lehigh Valley Mall on Saturday, picking up a few last-minute gifts. He looked not to have a care in the world as he moved easily through the fairly crowded corridors.

He had to park near Chuck E. Cheese but hey, "at least I'll be able to get out easy," he said, before heading into Macy's.

If only Susan Palmer of Allentown were so lucky.

"It took me two hours to get out of there. People were honking, people were yelling, there were almost accidents," said Palmer, whose full van included four hungry, thirsty children. "I was more waiting to go out of traffic than I was even in the mall."

Welcome to Lehigh Valley Mall, Christmas 2007, the first year the Outdoor Shops entered the holiday shopping mix. A healthy crowd flocked to the mall during one of the year's busiest shopping weekends, as busy in the old mall as in the newest addition.

But it was outside where the crowd's true impact could be seen, as vehicles jammed every possible road out. Slowly they crept along, drivers using any method possible to speed things along: cutting people off, driving over embankments, going the wrong way down roads, and, when all else failed, screaming obscenities at whoever dared to try and enter the line to exit.

It's no surprise crowds will be heavy during peak times, said Lehigh Valley Mall Manager Charles Miller, so shoppers should take advantage of the longer hours. The mall is open from 6 a.m. to midnight. Security "has been out there all afternoon trying to help people get out, but it's been a sensationally [heavy] traffic day," Miller said.

For those more familiar with the mall's thoroughfares, like Bethlehem's Jody Gilvary, the way out was a much more manageable 20 minutes.

"I kind of snuck out a different entrance," said Gilvary. "I didn't go over to the new section but I think everybody in the Lehigh Valley anticipated that [parking was] going to be worse because the new shops took up hundreds of spots."

Make that 275 spots to be exact, lost to the Outdoor Shops. To allow for that, Whitehall Township passed an ordinance that allowed one parking space for every 200 square feet, instead of the previous rule requiring one for every 250. So the mall has 5,875 spaces where it used to have 6,150.